Complete Little Orphan Annie Volume 1: Will Tomorrow Ever Come: Daily Comics 1924-1927

bOTH VOLUMES ARE BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTED. A LITTLE EXPENSIVE.ESPECIALLY VOLUME TWO FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON.

Newspaper comic strips are truly a time capsule of the world in which they reside. This collection, starting in 1924, is a good example of that. All the slang, styles, and current events of the day are on display in this one. Part adventure, part soap opera, part editorial cartoon, Little Orphan Annie was written and drawn by its creator, Harold Gray, for 44 years. This book contains the first 3 years of the strip.The main draw of the first volume of Little Orphan Annie is that it contains the story of how the title character met the iconic "Daddy Warbucks." It also sets the stage for the status quo that the strip had for its entire run (Annie and Daddy are separated and reunited constantly through the decades).For the art fans out there, you can see that Harold Gray's signature style had not yet taken off, but it gets closer to the characters' "classic" looks by the end of this volume, as it continues through into 1927. In terms of truly memorable stories, the later volumes are better, but this first volume is a must have for fans of the series or the comics medium as a whole.

I first read Little Orphan Annie in the Sunday funnies as a kid, between 1962 and 1968 when Harold Gray died. I have purchased several reprints over the years, but none were complete or comprehensive, and nearly all of them (even hardback reprints produced by Harold Gray himself in the 1930's) ignored the very earliest Annie cartoons. The only reprinting of the origin of Annie I ever saw was a 1970's Dover Books title "Little Orphan Annie and Little Orphan Annie in Cosmic City". This new series fills a serious gap in the historic record, and reprints the very first three years of Little Orphan Annie comic strips, with a few examples of the Sunday strip as well. It is well bound, with a sewn in ribbon book mark, with a high quality dust jacket and is worth far more than the cover price. There is also a short biography of Harold Gray which was very interesting. There was much more here than the Dover book had reprinted in the 1970's (though interestingly enough, the Dover book included the "plumbers helper" strip that the editor of this volume claims Harold Gray had decided never to publish). Also of interest was the fact that Harold Gray seemed to have change his method of story telling over the decades. In the early years, he told the story in the daily comic strip, and the Sunday page was a disconnected throwaway gag page, except for only two or three Sunday pages that were in continuity with the daily strips. By the 1960's, the daily strips were being used to set the stage for the Sunday page, were climax of the week's adventure was dished out in full color. (This was very confusing for me as a kid, because our paper only carried the Sunday strip and not the daily cartoon so I missed the build up during the week.) The Complete Orphan Annie Volume 1 does a very good job in reprinting the series, with only a few strips being obviously touched up and only one discontinuity - where Annie is the care of Mrs. Bottle and looking forward to a grim Christmas and suddenly she is in the house of a Mr. Goodfellow, who treats her to a grand holiday - with no explanation of who Mr. Goodfellow is or how they met. I can only assume the missing part of the story was in a Sunday page that was not printed in this volume. It was also interesting to learn that Harold Gray couldn't make up his mind what color Annie's hair was. At least twice in this volume, Annie is described as blonde, then red-haired, then blonde, then red-haired again. And, at last, the critics who claimed over the years that Annie never grew up or changed her red dress will be silenced. Annie is only about six years old in the first strips, and her red dress has yet to put in an appearance. And if you refer to the last strips in the reprint "Arf - The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie" - Annie is clearly about 12 years old in the strips from 1945, and spends most of the war years in overalls. The publishers of the Complete Little Orphan Annie have a monumental task ahead of them if they truly intend to reprint the entire run from 1924-1968. Even if they don't succeed, this first volume fills a void and prints strips that haven't been seen since 1924. For that alone, it deserved space on the shelf of every library and every fan of Little Orphan Annie.

Received my copy - beautiful to behold and read. The introductory text and accompanying photographs are well-researched and written. The reproductions of the strips are astoundingly clear (almost all of them come from Gray's own copies).I, too, am interested in seeing the Sundays included... not necessarily in color. Given how Gray constructed his stories, they're certainly not mandatory from a plot perspective, but it would be nice to have all of them included along with the dailies.With all of these gorgeous reprint projects underway, I hope that IDW can keep up and continue on into the 50s and 60s (with Dick Tracy, too) as many projects in the past have lost steam and interest once the 30s or 40s are completed. Gray's (and Gould's) work in these later decades strikes me as the most ignored in reprint editions...In any case, can't wait to read more in September with volume 2.

another classic comic strip lovingly reproduced for today. and what choices: terry and the pirates, moon mullins (not good reproduction but well worth seeking), dick tracy,, li'l abner, gasoline alley (what a wonderful strip!!!), krazy kat and others from the golden age of the comics and annie is a great as the rest.this is one of the best buys on amazon as there are hours of reading here and it's almost impossible not to fall in love with harold gray's spunky creation. sandy is more human than 95% of today's comic characters and annie, being a girl, was a trailblazer. she took nothing from anyone and usually clobbered boys whenever she had a fight - and she had many.the 1920s were a fun time and annie and the other comic strip characters make a wonderful time machine to - for a while - leave the world of today. this is a trip back in time well worth taking.

I've been a fan of Annie since I was old enough to read the newspaper funny papers, far enough back that Harold Gray was still doing the strip, and back when drama was still viable in the funny section. Since I came to the party fairly late (comparatively speaking) I always wanted to be able to go back to Annie's early years. I collected the Fantagraphics run till it died, and the more recent series of booklets, but I'm one of those people that wants The Whole Thing. This volume One is the first, but it won't be the last! The book is massive, much bigger and heavier than I expected, and the printing is clear. I LOVE it. Highly recommended to fans of the orphan, the benevolent industrialist, and tea party members. :-)

I vividly remember my youth, when I would eagerly await the cartoons in the Sunday paper' Little Orphan Annie was one of my favorites. Actually this book goes back to before I was born, but recaptures those childhood memories. A Great Book. The only negative is that the cartoons are copies made from original newspapers and sometimes the size is a little small and enhancement of the paages would help. However that can be overlooked. Higly reccomended!

I have been a great fan of comic strips since the '50s, and I much appreciate the work being done to preserve and present the old strips. This was something of a flyer since I rarely have actually had access to this strip. I loved this book. The artwork is fantastic and the stories roll along. I'm looking forward to getting more volumes, and I expect to occasionally reread this one. This is in contrast to some others. I have the first volume of Dick Tracy, and although I read this strip all through pre-adulthood, I see no reason to get another. I have 3 or 4 of Gasoline Alley, and I finally had to admit that these early story lines are boring, and drag on and on. I don't expect to ever reread them, and at the rate of publication it will be decades before the Gasoline Alley I remember fondly will be seeing print. So I recommend everyone buy the Annie volumes so that they keep coming, and hopefully the few exorbitantly priced volumes will be reprinted so we working folk can afford to get them.

Excellent compilation. Clear and precise printing on good quality paper. Reading Little Orphan Annie is a refreshing excursion into the past. The plots and characters are compelling enough without the modern dreariness of anti-heroes and convoluted morality (I hope you're reading this, George R. R. Martin). This is a keeper, and I plan on buying the next volume.

The first three years of Little Orphan Annie daily strips, with the handful of continuity Sunday strips. The bulk of the Sunday strips will come later. Here we have the beginings, and while Annie isn't as sharp as she would be in the future (in these early strips, she sometimes seems like a slightly vulnerable, slightly naive kid), there is quite a lot of what one would expect. One gets dramatic stories, sharp characterization and lessons about life the way it really is. Real life lessons from a comic strip? Yes. This is the begining of a ride that would last until 1968, when Harold Gray passed away. Of course there is no real Annie without Gray at the helm. I'm sorry that I never read this when I was growing up. It is a pleasure to see someone pick up where Fantagraphics dropped it. Now if the series keeps going to the end, we will be all set. No one saw the world in all its varied aspects better than Gray.

While Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie would develop into one of the all-time classic comics, these earliest stories still show him finding his feet. The art isn't as developed as it would later become, and the stories aren't as twisty or political as when the strip was in its prime. But even in these early stories, you can see the beginnings of greatness.

Insanely fast! Excellent product!

were it all started.annie was origenally blonde.

My 9 year old son enjoyed reading these old comics.

I could not have been happier with the quality of this edition. It's simply fantastic, by far the nicest edition of Annie strips ever collected.PLEASE... if you're browsing these reviews because you're curious about the quality of the book - or of the strip itself - BUY THIS BOOK.